“Thought is the mental imagery of what you want to do, have or achieve.”
“Understanding is a power greater then knowledge.”
“Choose your thoughts, carve them in your mind and fix your gaze on them always.”
“Democrasy comes into grave danger when truth is no longer spoken to power.”
“Your future will definitely head to the same direction with your thoughts; this is why planning your thought is so important.”
“Always set your mind to think thoughts of victory even before the battle begins, this way you will experience limitless possibilities.”
“And I wonder, therefore, how James Atlas can have been so indulgent in his recent essay ‘The Changing World of New York Intellectuals.’ This rather shallow piece appeared in the New York Times magazine, and took us over the usual jumps. Gone are the days of Partisan Review, Delmore Schwartz, Dwight MacDonald etc etc. No longer the tempest of debate over Trotsky, The Waste Land, Orwell, blah, blah. Today the assimilation of the Jewish American, the rise of rents in midtown Manhattan, the erosion of Village life, yawn, yawn. The drift to the right, the rediscovery of patriotism, the gruesome maturity of the once iconoclastic Norman Podhoretz, okay, okay! I have one question which Atlas in his much-ballyhooed article did not even discuss. The old gang may have had regrettable flirtations. Their political compromises, endlessly reviewed, may have exhibited naivety or self-regard. But much of that record is still educative, and the argument did take place under real pressure from anti-semitic and authoritarian enemies. Today, the alleged ‘neo-conservative’ movement around Jeane Kirkpatrick, Commentary and the New Criterion can be found in unforced alliance with openly obscurantist, fundamentalist and above all anti-intellectual forces. In the old days, there would at least have been a debate on the proprieties of such a united front, with many fine distinctions made and brave attitudes struck. As I write, nearness to power seems the only excuse, and the subject is changed as soon it is raised. I wait for the agonised, self-justifying neo-conservative essay about necessary and contingent alliances. Do I linger in vain?”
“Kila binadamu hapa duniani ni wa thamani kubwa. Chochote utakachofanya, kizuri au kibaya, kidogo au kikubwa, kitabadilisha maisha ya watu. Ukiwa na msingi mzuri kwa mwanao ataishi vizuri atakapokuwa mkubwa, atakuwa na uwezo mkubwa wa kuacha dunia katika hali nzuri kuliko alivyoikuta. Ukiwa na msingi mbaya kwa mwanao ataishi vibaya atakapokuwa mkubwa, atakuwa na uwezo mdogo wa kuacha dunia katika hali nzuri kuliko alivyoikuta. Kuwa mkarimu kwa mazingira, kuwa mkarimu kwa wanyama, kuwa mkarimu kwa binadamu wenzako, kwa faida ya vizazi vijavyo.”
“Washington likes to threaten the people over whom they exercise power.”
“His style as a writer places him in the category of the immortals, and his courage as a critic outlives the bitter battles in which he engaged. As a result, we use the word Orwellian in two senses: The first describes a nightmare state, a dystopia of untrammelled power; the second describes the human qualities that are always ranged in resistance to such regimes, and that may be more potent and durable than we sometimes dare to think.”
“All, or the greatest part of men that have aspired to riches or power, have attained thereunto either by force or fraud, and what they have by craft or cruelty gained, to cover the foulness of their fact, they call purchase, as a name more honest. Howsoever, he that for want of will or wit useth not those means, must rest in servitude and poverty.”
“Just let go of the oars. When you‘re no longer paddling against the Current, when you release your oars and relax into your own natural Well-Being, the Current, which is ever moving in the direction of that which you have become and all that you want, will carry you toward your desires.”
“Sex only makes people more like themselves. A powerful, secretive woman becomes only more powerful and more secretive in the throes of passion.”
“Throughout the 1980 s, we did hear too much about individual gain and the ethos of selfishness and greed. We did not hear enough a bout how to be a good member of a community, to define the common good and to repair the social contract. And we also found that while prosperity does not trickle down from the most powerful to the rest of us, all too often indifference and even intolerance do.”
“A problem is nothing more than a solution outstanding.”
“Wrong thinking will take your life the wrong way, channeling your thoughts to the right direction will cause you to soar in life.”
“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”